Exposed : A Pretty Little Liars FanFic Novel
by Peyton Anne Ellie
Summary: Jamaica was a bad vacay spot, but now that the 3RD A is gone, the girls go to Miami, Florida to vacation on the down-low. There, they run into a few ghosts from the past, new harmful strangers, & meet another girl that makes their worlds turn upside down for the worse...but a new A walks in, & he/she has a few tricks up his/her sleeve, ready to just pull them all out on the table.
1. Chapter 0: Surfacing Surprises

Exposed

**- a** _Prett__y__LittleLiars_ **fan-fiction novel -**

Justin Barnes [a.k.a. PeytonAnneEllie]

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"Adults find pleasure in deceiving a child. They consider it necessary, but they also enjoy it. The children very quickly figure it out and then practice deception themselves." - Elias Canetti

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Surfacing Surprises

Remember when you were little and you took a toy or a small object and dug a small hole in your backyard, putting the object there, burying it to come back to it later. Weather it was a few seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years, you still came back to it, right? Maybe you forgot about it. But as you dug it up, did you notice something different about it? Maybe you forgot a certain feature on the object or toy, or maybe the dirt stained the clothes on the toy or object, or maybe, if it took you a week or two to find it, you saw that it kind of decomposed, got gross. A little piece of it is gone, but you still dug up several new things, weather they were good or bad. Maybe you dug up another toy you forgot you buried, maybe you dug up something from the previous owner's of the house, or maybe you dug up something you didn't intentionally put there. Like a secret.

Weather it was a harmful secret, or a useless secret, it was still what it's labeled under: a secret. And even though you dug it up, part of you wishes you never found it. Just like the four girls of Rosewood, Pennsylvania, Hanna Marin, Spencer Hastings, Aria Montgomery, and Emily Fields. These four girls have secrets in _all sorts_ of places, and every day they live, each secret slowly gets unraveled, thanks to the help of their certain stalker going by the name of A. And as each secret gets unearthed, a few lives grow closer and closer to their grave to become buried….

"Okay, so the first thing we do here is to make sure we don't kill anybody," Hanna whispered to the other girls as they grabbed their luggage from baggage claim at the airport in Miami, Florida.

"Hanna!" Spencer snapped.

"What?" Hanna asked in defensive mode. "Sorry, but we don't need another T.C. incident to happen while were down here."

"Yeah, Spence, Hanna's right," Aria said. "Sure it's harsh to hear, and risky to say aloud, but she's right. We need to make sure we don't mess up by mistaking that someone random is someone from our past."

"…Sorry about that," Emily said. "I should have kept my mouth shut."

"No, Em," Hanna said. "If I were you I'd have done the same thing. You were scared, worried that she was back to end us all, and thanks to you, you saved our lives, except it wasn't really her. But if you kept your mouth shut, and it _had_ been Ali, who knows where any of us would be right now."

"Probably six feet under back in Rosewood," Spencer said and made sure all of her tags were where she had placed them on her bags. "This is our first vacation since Jamaica, and we can't screw this one up. So, keep away from strangers, stay in a close circle, and keep an eye out for anything or anyone suspicious, okay?"

"Got it," Aria said and grabbed her bags once Hanna and Emily had grabbed theirs.

"Now, let's go grab a taxi and get to our hotel room before someone recognizes us from the tabloids," Spencer said, pulling sunglasses down from her hair and over her eyes.

"It's been a few months, Spence, what makes you think people will still know who we are?" Emily asked and Hanna scoffed.

"That movie has been played more than a Justin Bieber song," Hanna said and pulled her sunglasses over her eyes, mimicking Spencer. "So I'm pretty sure some freak out there has watched it every second of the day, has the deluxe edition of the DVD, if that's even a real version of the stupid docudrama, and has recorded it when it first aired and watches it every time they see it on TV. Someone will remember our names or actually remember our faces from the magazines and other interviews."

Aria and Emily smirked, knowing that Hanna was probably right. They pulled their sunglasses on next and headed for the exit of the airport, ready to find their hotel and see what was in stock of the room-service menus. When the four girls were tormented by Mona and their best friend Alison, whom wasn't the Alison they really knew, not too long ago, the publicity sparked a docudrama to be made and played every minute some network would air it. It was called _Pretty Little Killer_, and it told the story of what really happened, except leaving out the part that the girls' Alison they knew so well, disappeared and got murdered, was really Courtney, her twin sister, who took Alison's place while Alison took Courtney's place down at a Mental Institution and once she was released she came back the night they threw their end of the seventh grade sleepover party and killed her own sister.

So much for a docudrama that's _so_ successful but leaves out the biggest part of the story, huh? Ever since it was made the girls see it on TV's all the time and hear nasty things about them, weather through tabloids or school. People mistake bad luck for karma or attention getting stunts to get all eyes on them since they were the It girls of Rosewood High at one point in their lives.

"Taxi," Spencer called, flailing her arms above her head and placing her thumb and pointer finger into her mouth, whistling an earsplitting whistle that brought a cab to the curb of the airport in less then thirty seconds.

"Nice whistling, Spence," Aria said, and the trunk of the taxi popped up and the girls placed their things inside the trunk, closed it and climbed into the back of the taxi-cab.

"Where you four girls heading to?" The taxi driver, a man named James Herder, asked.

"Hotel Victor," Spencer said and the driver nodded, putting the car into drive and pulled away from the hotel.

"How'd you hear about Hotel Victor, Spence?" Hanna asked and Spencer pulled her iPhone out, opening a web-browser she bookmarked.

"My parents told me about it. They said they stayed here several times, and I could've had my grandma's beach house but I figured a hotel would be better. Something new and different is what I need," Spencer said and passed the girls her iPhone, showing them the pictures of the resort the website had uploaded.

"Looks amazing," Hanna said. "They better have a spa room waiting for me as soon as we get there."

"Me too," Aria said and Spencer laughed.

"Right? This is exactly what we need right now," She said and all the girls nodded.

"What room are we staying in?" Emily asked and Spencer explained that they just so happened to get the same room Spencer's parents had gotten when they stayed there. "Wow, what a coincidence," Emily said and Spencer just shrugged.

"Actually they helped me pull a few strings. They got one of the _best_ rooms there and, not to say the other rooms aren't great, it's just this one is apparently bigger and more suitable for a four people stay."

"Oh," Emily said, handing Spencer's phone back to her. "Well that's cool."

"Yeah," Spencer said. "I'm just hoping it's not going to be a let down of a vacation."

"Don't think like that," Aria said. "If you jinx it, then it will most likely suck."

Hanna laughed. "Yeah, Spence, just because the last one was kind of a dud, doesn't mean this one will be."

"Yeah," Aria agreed. "We set guidelines, as long as we follow them, it'll be a blast."

"Guidelines we should have followed in the first place last time," Emily said and everyone looked at her, even the taxi driver. Emily looked away and sighed. "Sorry," She said and just then everyone's phones dinged, almost in unison.

"Well it looks like you four are pretty popular to get a message all at once," The taxi driver said and everyone except Spencer smirked.

"Guys," She said, slowly pulling the phone up her messages to see who the text was from. "You don't think it's-"

"Shh," Emily said. "Don't."

"Guys," Hanna said with a big sigh of relief. "It's just a text from Spencer's mom."

"Really?" Spencer asked, opening the message. "Dear girls have a great time. Glad I could help with the resort stay. Enjoy it. Veronica."

"Leave it to your mom to send us a chain message that ends up freaking us out," Hanna said and the girls laughed.

"That's a pretty name," The driver said, stopping at a stoplight.

"Uh...thanks," Spencer said and the girls all passed weird looks to each other.

"Sorry for eavesdropping," The driver said, looking at the girls in the rearview mirror. "But it just happens. Usually the radio's on but I don't wanna' disturb you guys with a radio so the silence just accidentally drifts other people's conversations in."

"It's cool," Emily said and the car started off driving again right as the light turned green.

Spencer slipped her keycard into the door lock and a small _ding!_ filled the air as the door unlocked and turned the knob, opening the door all the way for all the girls to see the inside of the beautiful room they had for two full months.

"Holy chizz, this is _our_ room!" Hanna asked, stepping inside and dropping her bags by the doorway.

"Yes it is," Spencer said.

All four girls walked into the room, the door swinging shut by itself, and they looked around, taking in the scenery. Right as you walk in, you have a large room covered from ceiling to floor in white. White carpet, white couch, white love-seat, white recliner, a white-themed kitchen, you name it. The entertainment center displaying a large case of popular kids, teenage and adult movies, porno's _not_ included unless specially ordered, stood underneath the sixteen inch flat screen TV that balanced on it's shelf. The remotes were resting on the top of the TV with Velcro and the DVD player was positioned on a very small shelf above the TV. The cushy floor broke off into tile once you hit the kitchen and the couch had a huge pull-out bed, if needed.

There were two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and four TV's. One in each bedroom, one in the living room and one on the kitchen bar. The girls broke off separately to take in every single inch of the place that they could before returning, content with the hookup they got with Spencer's mother.

"Who takes the bedrooms?" Emily asked.

"Well it doesn't really matter to me. There are two beds, so we could all split them two to each bed, but if you guys want space I can sleep on the pullout bed in the living room with someone and the other two can sleep in the beds alone," Spencer said and went to the couch, pulling it out to inspect. "It's pretty comfy, actually, for a couch pullout."

"No," Hanna said. "You're not sleeping on that. Gross. You can share a bed with me."

"Yeah and I can share a bed with Em," Aria said and Emily nodded her head in agreement.

"Alright, so who wants the room on the left and the room on the right of the linen closet?" Spencer asked and Aria and Emily took their bags to the room on the left while Spencer and Hanna took theirs to the room on the right of the linen closet.

"I'm so glad we decided to do this," Hanna said, transferring her clothes to the open closet and the open dresser drawers as Spencer did the same.

"Me too," Spencer said, kicking her first of the three empty bags she packed under the bed. "You can put your suitcases in the closet if you want."

"Okay," Hanna said and just then Emily and Aria entered their room, a small knock on the door.

"Hey," Aria said, jumping onto the big bed.

"You guys already unpack?" Spencer asked.

"Yeah," Emily said. "Living with a mother like mine has taught me to fold and put away quickly. I just had a few stacks to pull out and place where I wanted them then I helped Aria do the same."

"Oddly, it was good help," Aria said and Emily laughed, sitting next to her on the bed.

"You guys want to go down to see what they have at the bar in a few minutes?" Emily asked.

"Sure," Spencer said.

"Definitely, a nice martini would be good right now," Hanna said, pushing her empty bags into the closet while turning to the pile she dumped onto the bed.

"Hey, what's this?" Aria asked, pulling a necklace out of the pile of clothes Hanna dumped onto the bed.

"I don't know," Hanna said, dropping her pairs of underwear into the open drawer and turning back to inspect the necklace. "Ohmigod."

"What?" The other three girls asked in unison.

"This was a necklace I made when I was planning to steal Ali's piece of the Time Capsule Flag long ago," Hanna said, holding it up in the light for her to inspect better. "I had an idea of taking her piece and replacing it with this, hoping she wouldn't really notice."

"You made this to replace with _Ali's_ piece of the flag?" Aria asked. "Why didn't you just buy something. She would have probably flipped if she saw that on her make-up table instead of her piece of the flag."

"It was on her make-up table?" Emily asked and Aria shrugged.

"I don't know where she kept it," Aria said, shrugging and looking at the necklace as Hanna passed it to her. "All I know is Jason gave it to me once I ran into him in the woods after we became friends with Ali - I mean…Courtney."

"It's not that bad, guys," Spencer said, putting the last of her clothes away and pushing the bags under the bed with her foot. "For a homemade craft, this is pretty cute."

"That's what I thought," Hanna said. "I made it for me, a stupid yarn necklace with this old earring my grandma gave me since she lost the other one and it turned out well. At least, the younger, fatter, me did. Now it looks like I took a piece of cloth off a mop and stabbed the earring into it."

"Hanna, no, it's actually pretty," Emily said. "The way the pink and purple blend make the diamond in the earring pop."

"Thanks," Hanna said. "But I don't really like it anymore. Do any of you want it?"

"I'll take it," Aria said and Spencer laughed.

"Of course you will," Emily said.

"What?" Aria asked. "I'm a sucker for unique things…it's not a bad thing."

"Never said it was," Hanna said, tending back to her clothes, disposing of the last of them. "Now let's go get me a martini before I go crazy."

"Sounds good," Spencer said. "Do you guys have your keycards? I'll take mine but just incase I lose mine we all need to carry it in our wallets so we can get back in later."

"I'll go get ours," Emily said and walked off into her and Aria's room to retrieve their keys.

"Thanks," Aria said once Emily met the girls in the kitchen. Aria had already swooped the necklace over her neck and tied it tightly to keep it in place, her hair falling over it. She tugged on the earring to make sure that it wouldn't fall out while going to the bar and, once she was satisfied with the earring staying in place, they all left the room and headed towards the elevator.

On the way down the girls checked their Facebook profiles, logging out to keep the drama away from them while in a different state, and checked their eMails and texts, glad nothing new came in. They then put their phones on silent, pocketed them and walked out of the elevator once the doors opened after the bell dinged.

"Here we go," Spencer said, pushing open the doors to the bar area. "My parents said that this is where they have one of the best rum and coke here."

"Ew, Spence," Hanna said. "I'm not a forty-year-old man. I want to get drunk, not tired."

"It's not for just men," Spencer argued.

"Nor forty something people," Aria added.

"I doubt it makes you tired, too," Emily said and Hanna scoffed.

"Whatever, I want a martini," She said and Spencer glared at her.

"Calm down, you'll get your martini," Spencer said and they all sat down at the bar, balancing on the stools and waited for the waiter to turn around and grab their orders.

Music pumped throughout the entire crowd, the bass shaking the liquid inside the alcohol bottles behind the bar that was a huge half-circle-shaped design taking up space at one end of the area while people danced and sat on thin, tall chairs and nursed their drinks at the tables they sat at. Right as a dubstep version of Katy Perry's song _E.T._ _(Futuristic Lover)_ ended, a club remix of a David Guetta song featuring Flo Rida and Nicki Minaj started, the crowd cheering and quickly changing their temp of dance to match the new song's tempo.

"I _love_ this song," Hanna said and Aria nodded in agreement.

"I know every word," Emily said and before Spencer could say she did, too, the waiter turned around and looked at them, a rag over his shoulder and a tight-black T-shirt covering his torso while a matching black apron was tied to his waist.

"What can I get you four girls?" The guy asked and everyone froze as they recognized who the bartender really was. "Oh."

"Hey…Jason," Spencer said and Jason's face turned pale white.

"Hey, how are you…guys?" Jason asked and the girls all looked at each other before they answered with fine. "Good to hear. What can I, uh, get you girls to drink?"

"Martini, please," Hanna said and Emily told Jason she wanted a glass of wine while Aria ordered a vodka and sprite with Spencer ordering a rum and coke.

"Got it," Jason said and turned around to make their drinks.

The four girls immediately hunched closer and started talking. "What is _he_ doing here!" Hanna asked.

"Well he does have a life," Emily said.

"Yeah, but the last time we saw Jason DiLaurentis was when we were almost killed by the real Ali around the time of the Pocono's fire," Aria said and Spencer nodded.

"So is this where he went after he vanished once we made it out alive?"

"I don't know but we need to keep our guard up before something else happens," Aria said and Hanna sighed.

"We can never escape her," She said. "Why is Alison everywhere?"

"Because we keep bringing her everywhere," Emily pointed out and the girls turned around just as their drinks were delivered by a different bartender.

"Here you go," The waitress asked.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" Spencer asked and the girl turned around. "Do you know where Jason went?"

"Jason? We don't have a Jason working here," The girl said.

"Yeah, he just tended our orders right before you gave us the drinks, do you know where he went?" Spencer asked.

"The only other person working here is named Keith, and he just got off the clock. Sorry, no Jason." The girl then turned around and tended to a couple who just sat down.

"Where do you think he went?" Emily asked.

"Home?" Hanna suggested and Aria shrugged.

"Maybe Mr. and Mrs. DiLaurentis are here, too," She said and Spencer shook her head.

"Whatever the reason on why he's here in Florida while we are, we just need to make sure nothing bad happens."

"Last thing we need is another fire," Hanna said, picked up her martini and drained it in one gulp.

"Do you guys want to go?" Emily asked.

"Yeah," Spencer said. "I feel like, somehow, Ali's watching us right now."

"Or Jason," Hanna said.

"Or the whole club," Aria said and they all looked to see a few people were staring their way, murmuring something as they looked.

"Let's go," Hanna said, hopped off her stool and spun on her heel, the other three following suite, and almost ran into a girl her age coming into the club.

"Ohmigod, I'm _so_ sorry!" Hanna sputtered and the girl caught herself before falling backwards and started laughing.

"Dude, chill, it's totally fine," She said and readjusted her purse to be up on her shoulder. "You didn't damage anything of Lilly's, so you're good."

"Is your name Lilly?" Spencer asked and the girl nodded, a giggle escaping her lips.

"Yes, sure is," She said. "And you must be…"

"Uhh…" Spencer froze. "Darla."

"Oh, well…hi, Darla, what brings you girls here?"

"We are on vacation," Aria said, sticking her hand out. "My name is Kim."

"I'm…Melody," Emily said, shaking Lilly's hand.

"And I'm Jamie," Hanna said.

Lilly nodded. "Well you girls seem like a tight group of friends. Anyways, I guess I'll be seeing you around. I'm on vacation, too. Do you guys want to get a couple drinks?"

"We'd love to," Spencer said. "But we can't. We have to get up really early tomorrow to do something, but thanks for the offer."

"No problem," Lilly said. "Bye, girls."

"Bye, Lilly," The four girls said and they pushed through the doors and clomped up the stairs, heading back up to the elevators.

"Darla? Really?" Aria hissed.

"I didn't want to risk her recognizing us," Spencer said, pressing the UP button on the elevator keypad.

"Do you think the crowd recognized us?" Aria asked, the elevator's doors opening up, the soft ding filling the air.

"I don't know, but let's not double back to find out," Spencer said and punched the button to take them back up to their room.

"HOLD THE DOOR!" A voice boomed and they instantly started to keep the door open for the man but as they realized who was running towards the door, they let them slide closed and forgot who tried to catch a ride down at the bottom of the hotel.

"Was that our cab driver?" Aria asked.

"Yeah. It was." Spencer answered and Emily gasped.

"Why is he here at the hotel? Did we forget something in the cab?"

"No," Hanna said. "I have a feeling he recognizes us."

Somehow, the driver of the cab was running after them. For some reason he wanted their attention, and they all prayed that they didn't get a knock on the door from him later tonight once he finally got an elevator.

How could everyone know who they are? _Did_ everyone even know who they are? If so, who told them? Someone might have leaked, someone might have made the connection, but either way, this vacation would have to be a guarded one, because if someone already knows who they are, it's a matter of time before _everyone_ knows who they are.

Back in Rosewood, they're known as the Pretty Little Liars.


	2. Chap1: Summer Fling: Didn't Mean a Thing

1

Summer Fling: Didn't Mean a Thing

Hanna Marin tucked her suitcases into her closet, stacking them on top of each other and putting the six shoe boxes of shoes she bought down in Miami on top of them, taking the lid off so she could see their beauty when she opened her closet door.

"How was it?" Kate, Hanna's stepsister asked, her figure appearing in the doorway of her room in her dad's house.

"It was fun," Hanna said, closing her closet door. "I'm glad I went."

"Good to hear," She said and started to leave the room but then stopped, turned around and handed her a box. "This is from Tom."

"What is it?" Hanna asked.

"It wouldn't be wrapped if I knew," Kate said and left the room, closing the door behind her.

Hanna looked at the box, covered in brown wrapping paper, like a parcel from the older days of mail, and it was tied that way, too: tied shut with stiff, thin white yarn. Hanna pulled the bow's strings, the string slipping off instantly, lifeless, just as her phone dinged.

Hanna picked up her phone from the desk in her room and saw she had two new texts. One was from her mom, and one from her friend Aria Montgomery. Hanna opened Aria's first.

**Hey Han, do you want to hang later today?**

Hanna typed back, saying she'd be over in a few minutes. She then opened her mom's text.

**Sorry about me having to leave town just before you came back. Business is business. I'll be back soon and I promise to make it up to you. Love you. See you soon.**

Hanna didn't even answer it fully, she just sent back 'K, love you, too'. Hanna then pocketed her phone, grabbed her car keys and turned her attention back to the box from her father. She opened it up, ignoring all the other sounds coming from outside and down below her room in the house. She opened the box and saw a toy she hadn't seen in ages. It was a small, Raggedy-Anne looking thing Hanna had when she was just five. There was a note tacked to the doll's chest. It read:

Found this in the attic with some of my stuff. Thought you might want this back. - Dad

Hanna smiled and realized that she thought she lost this when she was younger. She thought her dad didn't care; she was glad and surprised to see him turn around. Lately Kate was his favorite daughter, but now that Kate and Hanna have mended their ways, in one way or another, he seemed to favor Hanna again, as if he had two daughters all together instead of one daughter and one burden to tend to.

Right now her dad was doing a conference call, so Isabel picked Hanna up from the airport, saying welcome back and all that yap. Hanna, no matter how many times her and Kate made up, still despised Isabel. She didn't like Dot, Hanna's dog, and I bet she didn't like Ashley, Hanna's mom, as much as Hanna did. Hanna wished her dad never left her mom, but things happen, and lately, ever since he came back, it's kind of been civil ground between her mom and her dad, which she's so glad to have found, because she's trying to share equal time with both parents, and lately it's been rough, ever since the Jamaica incident has finally been resolved.

At least she hopes so.

Ever since A has finally been solved and put away, the girls have grown closer, promising, yet again, to never part, no matter what happens, because now that something awful has happened in Miami, Florida, they've been sticking to it pretty well, hoping a new A will never surface and this incident was just a coincidence, along with running into Jason DiLaurentis, Alison's brother, and having a fling with their taxi driver that first met them while driving them from the Miami airport to their hotel, Hotel Victor.

Hanna pushed the memories away, placed the doll, she called her Gertrude when she was five, by her pillow, tossed the box into the trash-can by her desk and left the room, turning off the light and closing the door. She climbed into her car and drove towards Aria's house, her mind drifting to James, her summer fling. She had to call it quits, knowing it was only a fling, and before entering the two month relationship with him she had told him it wouldn't last, and he was okay with that, but the memories she had of him and her were the ones she cherished most, and is proud to say she has shared them with him, even though he was a stranger. Hanna was seeing it as a harmless fling, something you do while on vacation. You know how people do things that you normally wouldn't on vacation? Well, to Hanna, that was her vacation get-by rule: to date a stranger.

The only thing is: none of the girls knew about Hanna's summer fling.

Hanna wasn't afraid, she just thought that if she made it public knowledge the judgment she'd get, weather good or bad, would make her miss James, and she didn't want to miss James. He was in her past. Gone. For good.

Hanna pulled into Aria's driveway, pulling up behind Spencer's car parked next to Emily's, and she quickly shut off the car, got out and went inside to greet the others.

"Hello?" Hanna called out into the empty foyer, shutting the door behind her.

"In the kitchen!" Aria's voice bellowed and Hanna made a beeline for the kitchen, ready to see what the others were up to.

"Hey," Emily said and Spencer waved.

"Hey guys, whatsup?" Hanna asked and the girls shrugged.

"About to _demolish_ that pizza in the oven, want some?" Aria asked and Hanna shrugged.

"Why not," Hanna said, sitting down on an empty stool at the bar. "What were you guys talking about?"

"Well Spencer found a picture from us down in Florida and it brought up memories," Emily said, picking the picture up off the smooth, glossy table and passing it to Hanna.

Hanna looked at it and nervously laughed, pushing it back towards Emily, an uneasy feeling forming in her stomach. "I can't believe we had to live life down there as Darla, Kim, Melody and Jamie."

"Well we had to," Spencer said, laughing at their little game of playing Hannah Montana down in Florida. "We didn't need people coming up to us and asking us about Ali. Or Mona, or anything else dealing with A or anyone from our past, let alone any_thing_."

"True," Hanna agreed. "I was just shocked Jason was there, and I still am."

"We are, too," Aria said. "I'm surprised none of us recognized him before he turned around. We all did know him pretty well hanging out with Alison."

"_Courtney_," Emily said, correcting Aria that the girls never were friends with Alison DiLaurentis, but her twin sister Courtney instead, and everyone grew quiet as they realized she was right. They knew Alison from school but became friends with Courtney and knew Jason from stories they heard Alison spill and from what they saw at the DiLaurentis house and school, sometimes on the street, but other than that they weren't buddy-buddy with anyone except Courtney, and during that time they were all fooled, even the rest of the family, that Courtney was Alison. It was enough to make anyone's brain hurt, and in the end it did.

"Have you guys heard from Lilly?" Emily asked, breaking the tension and silence that had grown thick in the room.

A loud _BING!_ filled the air, the oven telling the girls that their pizza was ready, and Spencer shook her head no.

"Not since last week," She said. "What about you?"

"Same," Emily said. "Aria?"

"Uh…no. I did get an eMail from her last week though but I didn't read it till this morning, I don't check it often," Aria said, pulling out her BlackBerry and pulling up her eMail to show the girls.

"What's it say?" Hanna asked.

"It says…._Hey, Kimmie! It's Lilly, from Florida! Anyways, I was just dropping in to say hello! When are you and the others going to come visit me? I miss my pretty little clubbers! Answer ASAP! Luv ya! Byyyye! – L_."

"_Pretty little clubbers_?" Spencer asked. "That's weird..."

"You don't think she knows, do you?" Aria asked.

"No," Hanna said. "I mean, were girls, we met her at a club and clubbed a bit with her down there, were small for our height, but not _too_ small, and we are pretty. She's just overly Lilly."

"What does being herself have anything to do with that eMail?" Emily asked.

"Em, she's Lilly. I mean, you guys did kiss at the club that one time," Hanna said and Emily gasped. "Sorry," Hanna said, throwing her hands up in the air in defensive mode. "Didn't mean to spill, but she was drunk, you're hot, she wanted to kiss someone and you were there. Don't blame yourself for getting kissed by a Florida girl. She was pretty."  
"You guys _kissed_!" Aria asked.

"Why does Hanna know about it and not us?" Spencer asked, pulling the pizza cutter out of the drawer Aria pointed to.

"Because I didn't want you guys to think I'm That Girl," Emily said.

"What 'Girl' is that, Em?" Aria asked.

"The kind that kisses girls or the kind that has secrets?" Spencer asked. "Cause we already know about both of those, Em."

Emily blushed. "I didn't want to be The Girl that has summer flings during vacation. That's not me. I didn't want you guys to judge me."

"Okay, first off, Emily," Aria said, taking a plate with two pieces of pizza from Spencer's hands as she held it out for her to take. "You have dated girls and guys before; we didn't judge you when we found out what went down with Alison, or Mya. Nor did we judge you when you got pregnant with Isaac's baby a year ago."

"Yeah, but, still," Emily said.

"Emily," Spencer said, handing her a plate of pizza. "We never judged you, nor will we ever."

"Thanks," Emily said, taking a bite of pizza to quit talking about the subject.

Hanna grew quiet, knowing that Emily thought the way Hanna did about what went down on their summer vacation. She dated James for the two months while they were down there, yes, but she didn't let him know her name. She had taken Spencer's advice on living up to fake names, so all throughout their Florida vacation Hanna Marin was known as Jamie Mansfield, about-to-be-freshman in college starting next year. Together they went out to dinner, skinny dipped in the ocean late at night, went back to his hotel room two floors below hers and laid in bed, watching corny movies and texting each other when they weren't hanging out.

The whole time the girls thought she was just doing alone time things on top of spending time with them as a group. But maybe she should tell the girls, maybe she should tell them about James, just to keep their 'No Secrets' policy still a main priority. But she didn't want to get judged, nor did she want them to yell at her for keeping a secret this long and not telling them. But then again, the girls themselves might have secrets they aren't sharing, such as Emily getting kissed by Lilly, for example. Sure it wasn't anything out of the ordinary, nothing _too_ secretive to get mad over, but it was still kept between Hanna and Emily, a secret nonetheless. So maybe, just maybe, keeping this secret won't count. No one except her and James know about what went down, and any random strangers going down, and now that A is gone for good it doesn't matter which stranger knew, so maybe this secret can be forgotten since they both knew what was going to happen from the get go.

But what if A returned, like he/she always did, and exposed her for what she was: a liar, yet again. A always did return, when they least expected it, and even though it's been a year since everything went down with their third A about the whole Jamaica Incident, who knows if a fourth A was using their vacation to spy on the girls and get enough juicy information to use against them? It's happened before, why not now?

"Guys," Hanna blurted, looking up from her pizza, but her mouth froze, but no words escaped her throat.

"Yeah, what is it?" Spencer asked, wondering what Hanna was trying to say.

"This pizza looks yummy," Hanna said, averting her gaze to her pizza and picking up a slice, quickly biting a huge bite out of it so she wouldn't talk anymore, and the girls exchanged odd glances and went back to discussing how a new episode of a TV show they all liked was coming on later that night.

"Do you guys wanna' stay over and watch it?" Aria asked, finishing her pizza and Spencer swallowed a gulp of soda.

"I would but I have to go home and figure out exactly what's going to happen to Melissa's room," Spencer said and finished off her pizza with two bites.

"Oh, yeah, she's moving in to Darren's house, isn't she?" Hanna asked and Spencer nodded.

"Are they going to get married?" Emily asked.

"As of right now, no, but who's to say she isn't already pregnant, that's what's spurring this moving in idea. But she's going to move out fully tonight and my mom asked me to come up with an idea for the room. Either make it an office or make it a guest room, or make it a library of some sort. Either way she wants an idea, and I'm not going to fail at the opportunity to shine."

"Isn't her room bigger than yours?" Hanna asked and Spencer shrugged.

"Haven't really checked, why?" Spencer wondered.

"Just move in to her room and then fix your room into a guest room. Libraries are dumb and your mom has two offices ever since your dad left, how many more does she need?" Hanna asked and Spencer laughed.

"Yeah, ever since my mom found out that my dad had gotten Jessica DiLaurentis pregnant with Alison and Courtney, making them my sisters," Spencer said, the room growing quiet again.

When Spencer was younger, Spencer's father and Alison's mother had an affair and Jessica, Ali's mom, got pregnant out of wedlock with twins, Ali and Courtney, that soon became Spencer's best friend, and street-neighbor, but they never let each other know until A stepped into Spencer's life, that's when it all changed. Spencer had told her mother the secret in the parking lot of a restaurant and all hell broke loose, spring a divorce to come into play and her father to move out of the house. Now her father is still the way he was, just wifeless, and her mom is dating a snooty-rich man named Thaddeus who has two children, Zach and Amelia Pennythistle. Amelia's all 'I'm a violinist', and acts stuck up, and Zach is in military school once Spencer accidentally spilled his secret of possibly being gay.

When Spencer was about to meet the Pennythistle family for the first time she escaped the dinner table, sat at the bar to catch a breather and bumped into Zach, liking him from the start but realizing once it was Thaddeus' son that she couldn't like him, so they hung out and she couldn't help but keep liking him and she kissed him. He pulled away saying they can't be doing that and Spencer asked why and he revealed himself of being gay. Spencer then took the distance but grew close to him, hanging out, and one day he kissed her and she grew confused, and they fell asleep on the bed half naked, Thaddeus walking in and starting to shove and kick his own child around. Scared shitless, Spencer told him to quit, that nothing was going on because he was gay, and Thaddeus grew furious, throwing Zach into military school.

Zach didn't appreciate what Spencer did, either, telling her to rot in hell, called her a bitch and hasn't spoken or seen her since.

"So did you answer Lilly's eMail?" Emily asked, breaking the silence.

"Not yet," Aria said, pushing the empty glass plate around in a circle. "I didn't know what to say, thought I'd answer it later tonight."

"Should we answer it now?" Emily asked. "To see if she replies?"

"It doesn't matter," Spencer said. "Do whatever you want to do, Aria."

"Remember when we weren't supposed to make friends down in Florida?" Hanna asked then and everyone laughed.

"Yeah well, look how that turned out," Spencer said. "We have a Florida girl named Lilly texting, eMailing and calling us every now and then. What happened to our guidelines?"

"After the Jason thing they kind of fell away," Emily said and they all started to remember what exactly happened after they went back up to their room shortly after they ran into Jason DiLaurentis.

"How could he recognize us?" Emily asked, the elevator doors opening up to their floor.

"Well we aren't exactly spies, Em. Our faces haven't changed, _we_ haven't changed, and the news hasn't changed," Spencer said and Spencer fished into her pocket, pulled out her keycard and struck it into the slot on the door, the door opening and the girls pushing in, slamming the door before finally exhaling breaths they hadn't realized they'd been holding.

"We're safe," Hanna said and Aria smirked.

"Are we? I mean, what if another A is plotting against us _right now_? What if we wake up in the middle of the night to knocks on the door from the cab driver, or paparazzi?"

"Or worse," Emily said, sitting down on a stool at the bar. "Jason."

"Just keep the guidelines in check, okay?" Spencer asked and the girls nodded. "I'm gonna' go shower. I'll be out, soon."

"Okay," The other three said in unison.

Spencer disappeared into one of the bedrooms and the girls all settled down on the couch in the living room.

"I can't believe Jason's here," Aria said and the other two nodded.

"Is he staying in this hotel, too?" Hanna asked and Emily gasped.

"What if the whole family is?" She asked, worry running through her eyes.

"Do we confront them?" Hanna asked. "Accuse them of following us?"

"No," Aria said. "No, just forget that they're here. More importantly, did anyone else think that Lilly chick was pretty weird?"

"I didn't," Emily said and Hanna scoffed.

"I almost made stick to the bottom of my shoe, guys, she was probably freaked I almost ran her over _on foot_."

"No," Aria said.

"She means how she talked in third person," Emily said and Hanna stopped short.

"She did?" Hanna asked and the others nodded.

"She said 'You didn't damage anything of Lilly's, so you're good'," Emily said and Hanna scrunched up her face.

"That's weird. Why'd she do that?" Hanna asked and Aria shrugged.

"Maybe it was just a slip, I sometimes say weird things and I don't mean to," Aria said and Emily shook her head no.

"I don't know. Maybe she knew who we were or something?" Emily asked.

"Whatever her reason was, she's not stuck to the bottom of my shoe so we're good," Hanna said, got up and headed to the fridge.

"What are you going to get out of there? We haven't stocked it yet," Aria pointed out and Hanna opened the door.

"It's called complimentary," Hanna said, plucking a Dr Pepper out from a fridge shelf. "We get charged for it, though. I need something to drink; we had to leave our drinks behind us at the bar."

"Who's to say Jason didn't spike them with something harmful?" Emily asked and Aria stood up, walking over to the fridge to grab something from the fridge herself.

"No, he wouldn't risk it. Who's to say some random guy comes up and just takes a free drink? Then he's got to live with an innocent death on his hands," Aria said and right as the lid to the drink made a _pffsst!_ noise, filling up the room, the girls grew quiet.

"He'd still harm us," Spencer said suddenly, the girls jumping. Spencer walked out, a towel wrapped up around her head, tucked deep inside a hotel robe. "Who's to say he isn't thinking of a way to harm us in our sleep." Right as those words left Spencer's mouth, a knock came to the door. "I'll go get dressed," Spencer said, took the drink from Hanna's hand and headed back to the bedroom, taking a swig on the way back.

"Hey!" Hanna spat, sighed and walked towards the door, reached for the handle but Aria's hand grabbed her shoulder. Hanna jumped, not realizing Aria was following her, but then Aria pointed to the peephole and Hanna looked out it and rolled her eyes when she realized who it was.

Hanna opened the door and plastered on a fake smile. "Hey!"

"Hey…Jamie, right?" Lilly, the girl from the bar, asked and Hanna – Jamie – nodded. "I found this down at the bar, the main desk guy said to take it back up to you, they even had me followed by that guy over there," Lilly pointed to a guy, whose backside was facing Hanna, but Hanna could see the side of his face, and Hanna knew him all too well and she sighed. It was James, the taxi driver, the guy racing to get the elevator before it closed. Aria made a noise behind her and Hanna felt a presence fade away, Aria clearly leaving Hanna to do this alone. Hanna took the key from Lilly. "Thank you, so much."

"No problem," Lilly said. "Hey, can I ask a question?"

"Sure," Hanna said and Lilly leaned in, hushing her voice a bit. "Isn't this the most pretty little flask you've ever seen?"

Lilly swiftly pulled a silver flask out of her pocket and pushed it into Hanna's hand, widening her eyes to tell her to hide it so James didn't see it. Hanna gasped and started laughing. "Okay, thanks a lot."

"No problem," She said, waved to the girls behind Hanna and started to walk a way. "See you, soon."

As Lilly passed James, James stepped off the wall and looked at Hanna briefly and then stopped in his tracks, turning around, a question forming on the tip of his tongue but Hanna quickly slammed the door shut before anything was said. Then, before he could knock on the door, she opened it, took the DO NOT DISTURB sign off the inside part of the door and stuck it on the outside, slammed the door shut and walked back into the kitchen, placing the keycard and the flask on the table.

"How come my keycard didn't come with a flask?" Emily asked and Hanna glared at her.

"It's not _my_ keycard," Hanna said. "Mine's right here." Hanna fished out a keycard from her back pocket and slid it back in once the girls got a good look at it.

"Who was that?" Spencer asked, returning from the room and Hanna turned to grab a glass from under the kitchen bar.

"Lilly. She found one of our keycards and came to return it. Then, before she left, she handed me this."

"A flask?" Spencer asked and Hanna opened it up, tipped it over above the martini glass, and sure enough, a clear liquid poured out and slithered into the glass.

"A martini _in_ a flask," Hanna said and lifted the glass to her lips.

"Hanna, _no_!" Spencer said, ripping the towel off her head and throwing it at Hanna.

Hanna dropped the glass and glared at Spencer. "What the hell, Spence!"

"Who knows if that's even a martini," Emily said, picking up the shattered glass and placing it in the towel as she used the bottom of the towel to mop up the liquid.

"That could have been a martini," Hanna said and Aria took the keycard off the bar.

"Yes, and it could have been poisoned," Aria said and scoffed. "Look at this."

Aria pushed the keycard back onto the table and Emily stood up from the floor, peering over the edge of the bar to get a better look as Spencer and Hanna peered in to read what was scribbled on the backside of the keycard.

On the white, thin plastic side of the keycard was a heart drawn on in lipstick with the letter L slashed through it. It was a bit smeared but seemed to be dried on pretty good. "Lilly's doing, I suppose," Spencer said, licked the back of her thumb and began to smudge off the lipstick.

"Who was that guy with Lilly?" Aria asked Hanna.

"It was James," Hanna said, Emily and Spencer's head whipping up at the familiarity of the name. "The taxi driver."

"That wasn't the first time she used the words 'pretty' and 'little' in the same sentence, was it?" Hanna asked, coming back to the present, her memories flooding back into the back of her mind where they once were.

"Who?" Spencer asked and Hanna told them what Lilly whispered into her ear and the girls looked at each other, suspicions forming in their minds.

"Coincidence," Emily said and the others quickly agreed, not wanting to let previous events of A getting the best of them.

On the way home, Hanna coasted on the speed limit in the other lane instead of her normal choice: the fast lane. Her mind was thinking about a bunch of different things. From Florida to what would happen in tonight's new episode of the show she liked, if she'd hear from Lilly soon or not, and came back to when she remembered Lilly saying "pretty little" in the same sentence in the eMail to Aria and in verbal format to Hanna down in Florida. It was almost like she knew they were the Pretty Little Liars of Rosewood, almost like she knew their story was told in _Pretty Little Killer_, the made-for-TV bio-drama.

Almost as if she were A.

Hanna then laughed, realizing how stupid that sounded. Sure it may be like an A thing to do, and from the weird events that have happened down in Florida, Jason showing up being one of them, was just a coincidence. Surely they'd have heard from A by now, right? And the reason why they haven't, Hanna decided, was because A was gone, out of their lives completely and never coming back.

Never.

Ever.

Hanna's mind travelled back to Lilly saying "pretty little", a feeling not wanting to go away, that was rooted deep in Hanna's subconscious. Sure it was suspicious, but maybe that was just how Lilly was, afterall. But Lilly wasn't saying that to Hanna, she was speaking to Jamie, Hanna realized, and she eMailed Kim, not Aria. Kim and Jamie didn't matter; they were just parts of the past, figments of Florida's imagination, something they'd quickly forget.

But there was something Hanna _couldn't_ forget: her summer fling with James. Yes she despised him at first, but he came around to be quite the man in her life, and even though she hated that, Jamie loved it in every which way.

But then Hanna's advice came back to her: Jamie didn't matter, nor did Kim. So that meant whatever happened down in Florida didn't matter, which meant James didn't matter.

Hanna merged into the fast lane, content with where her mind finally landed, and pressed her foot onto the pedal.


	3. Chapter 2: eMails From Florida

2

eMails From Florida

Aria Montgomery padded down the stairs of her mother's house, keeping quiet so she wouldn't wake Ella or her boyfriend, Xavier. The clock on her phone read 3 A.M. and she was very tired, but the hunger in her stomach overpowered her ability to sleep so she got up to satisfy her gurgling stomach.

Aria grabbed a box of Frosted Flakes from the pantry and snagged a bowl from a shelf over the kitchen counter as she walked into the kitchen. Normally she didn't eat cereal at this time of night, but nothing else really sounded good to her. As Aria opened the fridge to pull the milk out, a small chime coming from her cell phone filled the air. Aria poured cereal into the bowl and quickly followed it with milk, placed the milk back in the fridge and dug a spoon right into the cereal, separating it as the spoon made its way to the bottom of the bowl. Aria then pushed the bowl to the other side of the counter and sat on the stool, grabbing her phone to see who had texted her.

To Aria's surprise it wasn't a text message at all, but an eMail instead. Aria looked at the sender's name. _LillyPad198 _ Aria pressed READ and looked at the message just sent to her.

**Kimmies! Haiiii! Anyways, just wanted to respond to your response of my previous eMail….It's good to hear from you. Everything's alright down here in Miami. The sun is a bitch to be out in these days. Weird, huh? When are you coming back down? – XOXO – Lilly!**

Aria sighed and took a bite of her cereal. It was such a bad idea to go by fake names, not only in Florida but back here in Rosewood. Sure it sounded good at the time, but getting called 'Kimmies' sent chills up Aria's spine.

And not the good kind.

Aria had told Hanna, Emily and Spencer about Lilly's first eMail yesterday when they were over, but she never told them she had replied, at least not yet. Once everyone left she had responded quickly, saying that she didn't know when she'd be back down and that clubbing with her was fun, that she misses it, and asked her how things were doing. Aria was surprised to see Lilly responded quickly, because ever since texting had overthrown phone calls, which had overthrown eMails in a sense, no one really checked their eMails anymore, at least as far as Aria knew.

But then again, Lilly was weird, so maybe she checked her eMail three times every day? Aria laughed at the thought of Lilly staring at a computer screen, pressing the refresh button every five minutes to see if any mail came in, and couldn't help but picture her _actually_ doing that down in Miami, Florida.

"What's so funny?" A voice said and Aria turned around to see Xavier, Ella's boyfriend, standing in the doorway.

"Oh, did I wake you?" Aria asked, a sense of worry filling her gut.

"No," He said. "Just going to the bathroom."

"You do know this is the kitchen, right?" Aria asked and he chuckled.

"Cute," He said and walked up to her, leaning against the bar. "Someone send you a funny text?"

"No," Aria said and pocketed her cell phone, hoping to look casual.

Xavier, Aria's mother's boyfriend, had met Aria at an art show a little over two years ago. He and Aria had clicked instantly, and when Aria went home later that night to visit her mom, her mom talked about a boyfriend she met and to Aria's surprise, it was Xavier himself. Even while dating Ella, Xavier's had this insatiable attraction to Aria, wanting to be closer to her, and Aria has gotten freaked out because not only did A, at the time, know about the little almost-love triangle, A threatened to use it against Aria, and Aria didn't need that in her life, not after everything she'd been through.

"How's life treating you?" Xavier asked and Aria glared at him.

"Xavier," She said, her face scrunching up into a disgusted look. "Stop. You're with my mom, you need to _stop. Hitting on me._"

Xavier chuckled again and before Aria knew it, his hands were around her arms and he pulled her up to her feet. He sucked in a big huff of breath and stared into her eyes. "You know you want to," He said and leaned in. "It's a shame I've learned you're nothing but a tease."

Aria nodded and took the bowl of cereal off the counter once he'd let go of her and she took a bite, pulled the stretchy waistband of his pajama bottoms and poured the contents down in there.

"Guess what? You're wrong," Aria said and Xavier jumped back, gasping at the sudden turn of events and Aria let go of the waistband, a grin touching her lips and turned on her heal heading back up to her room, closing and locking the door with more effort than probably needed.

Aria pulled out her cell phone and sent a text to Spencer.

**You awake?**

Spencer never answered and Aria texted the other girls, but to no avail. She sighed and reopened Lilly's eMail. She then had an idea.

**Hey Lilly! It's good to hear from you, too! The weather sounds nice down there, it's kind of mild here, not too hot or anything. I'm _extreeeeemely _jealous! Anyways, we should be back down, soon. I'll keep you posted! – Kim**

Aria then sent the message, unaware if she was positive or not she'd be returning to Miami, Florida with the other girls. Aria placed the phone on her nightstand and lay back down in bed, hoping to catch some sleep. But when all the problems in her life took form of the shadowy shapes around her room, Aria kept on thinking things through, wondering if Ella would ever dump Xavier anytime soon. She smiled at the thought of her mom dumping him, and before Aria knew it, she was fast asleep.


	4. Chapter 3: Emily Fields, Mother at Heart

3

Emily Fields, Mother at Heart

Emily Fields' alarm clock turned on, blaring a song that was declaring its final verse on Z107.7, and as Emily turned the clock off, she realized that her phone was containing one new text message. Emily rubbed the sleep from her eyes, wondering who had texted her in the middle of the night, and as she opened her text message inbox, she realized the text was from her friend Aria Montgomery. Emily stared at it quizzically and opened it, wondering why she had texted her in the middle of the night.

**You awake?**

The time read 3:21 A.M. and Emily stared at the message weird. Why was Aria up that late in the first place? Emily quickly pressed REPLY and started typing back.

**I am now…is everything okay? Why were you up so late?**

Emily pressed SEND and waited five seconds, hoping to get an answer as quick as possible. But when nothing filled her inbox she swung her legs over the bed and checked the time on the clock sitting on her nightstand to the left of her bed. 8:45 A.M. Emily ran her fingers through her hair and slipped her feet into her slippers, padded towards her bedroom door and made her way to the stairs, the smell of pancakes, bacon and syrup filling the air.

"Mom?" Emily asked as she reached the landing, but to her surprise, a younger boy was standing by the oven, not her mother.

The boy turned and Emily gasped. Isaac Colbert, her ex-boyfriend, was cooking in her house. _In her house_. Where were Emily's parents? Did they allow this? Is she gonna' get in trouble? Was _Isaac_ going to get in trouble?

"Isaac," Emily said, an uneasy feeling settling into her stomach.

"Hey, beautiful," Isaac said and flipped some pancakes onto a plate. "How are you?"

"Why are you here?" Emily asked and he smirked.

"I wanted to talk to you," Isaac said and Emily then gasped. "What?"

"How'd you get in?" She asked frantically. "My parents are out of town."

"Your sister let me in. Caroline, right?" He asked and Emily nodded.

"I didn't know she was here," Emily said and he told her that she was leaving the driveway right as he was pulling up to it and she let him inside. "Well," Emily said, feeling a little weird still that _Isaac_ was in her _home_, she pulled a chair out from the kitchen table and sat down. "What brings you here, exactly?"

"Just wanted to talk about things," He said, bringing a few plates over to the table and as he sat everything down, Emily realized how hungry she really was after her eyes fell onto the plate full of pancakes.

"What kind of things?" Emily asked and he sat down, handing her a glass of orange juice with _out_ the pulp.

"Us kind of things," He said and Emily nodded, somehow knowing it was coming. "Ever since I found out about our baby…I can't shake the feeling of us getting back together."

Emily almost choked on her orange juice as she listened to Isaac's words. Sure Emily had thought about it, too, but it wasn't like she was going to immediately go back out with him just because she bore his child. She gave up the baby girl a year ago, nothing is really keeping her and Isaac close anymore, at least other than their friendship. Sure, when she dated him a few years ago she was immensely happy, but that was before he didn't trust his own girlfriend about how crazy his mother actually was and broke up with her, calling her a girl that was just like the rest of his past girlfriend. That hurt Emily more than the knowledge of becoming pregnant had, and to this day she still cringed at the memory of him breaking up with her.

But then again, he didn't know his own _mother_ was crazy, and if someone had told Emily her mother was crazy, whom she was for sending her daughter to _another state_ after learning her daughter was gay, Emily didn't think she'd believe the outsider either, without proof of course, and even when Emily had it, Isaac still broke up with her till he saw it himself.

Now, two years later, he's back in her life, wanting to be with her again, and even though she kept a year long secret from him, especially making the decision of putting the baby up for adoption, Isaac still wanted her. And even with all the murderous things that happened between Emily, the other girls, and their third A, Emily was put through hell to keep her daughter safe, even though her daughter wasn't her daughter anymore. Her daughter was Violet Baker, a year old coming this winter, and she was several hundred miles away from where Emily sat.

Did Emily regret giving her baby up for adoption? Maybe. Maybe she thought seeing Isaac suddenly everywhere after A learned of Emily's pregnancy secret sparked a hope that if Emily had kept the baby that they could have began a cute, "_16 & Pregnant_" life together, minus the TV show and all the drama…and the age.

"So what about…us?" Emily asked and he stared into her eyes, their breakfast growing colder and colder by the second.

"Em," Isaac said. "I feel…everything returning. All the feelings we've shared, our first time together, all the cute things we did…I feel everything coming back and I can't get you off my mind. Sure, our baby is gone, and that's probably for the best at our age, but we can try again, and make sure we don't get pregnant with another Fields-slash-Colbert newborn. I love you, Em, and I hope you feel the same about me."

Emily gasped, surprised at what she was hearing. Sure she knew he still loved her, she still loved him, but the fact that he was proving himself to her just made her…want him back. Emily was surprised that, ever since she learned she was gay, she could love a boy again. Learning she was bisexual, she discovered that Isaac was the only guy she had ever dated. Sure she had dated a boy named Ben back in high school, but that was during her thought process of discovering the feelings for Alison DiLaurentis, well, _Courtney _DiLaurentis, and crushing on the new girl, Maya St. Germain, had begun.

"Em," Isaac said, still staring at her. "You okay?"

Emily realized she had been silent, and still, for quite some time now. And even though she couldn't find the words to say, her heart strings were pulling, telling her that the feeling of loving Isaac was returning, and the feeling of him being her baby-daddy, no matter if the baby was gone or not, returned and she smiled. She nodded, tears coming to her eyes with the picture of having a family with him, knowing that if they lasted long enough they could get pregnant again.

"I'd love to get back together," Emily said and slid her hand over his, which was outstretched on the table.

Isaac let a sigh of relief escape his lungs and they started eating breakfast, switching topics to something else before being that couple that talked about a topic till it got awkward. Emily stared into his eyes, knowing that getting pregnant was a mistake for her age, but she didn't regret it. If they were still together, would Emily have kept the baby? Would Isaac stuck around, or left her to be a parent all by herself? Would Isaac want to get married to make the family a real-deal thing? What would have happened if Emily had told him she was pregnant to begin with? How would that have affected her future right now?

Emily couldn't help but feel a zillion questions zoom through her head as she carried on a conversation with Isaac during breakfast, and she suddenly realized what she had to do.

She had to introduce Isaac to Violet Baker, their baby girl a year-long adopted. With the Baker's approval, of course.


End file.
